Dear Editor:

Last week’s Reporter had a story about teenage unemployment and how tough it is for our teens to land the job they need and deserve. Unfortunately, the reason is plain and simple, government interference in the free market system. In July 2007, the federal minimum hourly wage was increased for the first time in 10 years, to $5.85 from $5.15. It was increased again a year later to $6.55 and increased yet again this July to $7.25. Many economists at that time predicted that unskilled workers (typically teenagers and minorities) would suffer the most. Despite what the “living wage” socialists say, those economists have been proven correct as the Reporter story confirms. As the rate difference narrows between the skilled and unskilled it is the low hanging fruit (unskilled workers) that suffer the most.

While general unemployment is at 8 percent, oops, that’s what President Obama and our NJ elected officials in Washington D.C. told us it would be if his stimulus bill was enacted. It was. Now unemployment stands just under the 10 percent mark he said it wouldn’t go to. When wage differentials narrow, who would you hire? A teenager or an adult? Most business owners obviously prefer a more mature adult. This is why our teens can’t find a job and is why only the teenage age group has the highest unemployment rate of all time, while others have high but not the highest rate. It’s Economics 101, except for the Democrats in our nation’s capital.

Scott Siegel
VP, Hoboken Republican Committee